


at your touch

by mayuaka



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, not quite fluff not quite angst, please watch hotarubi no mori e
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 17:07:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16520519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayuaka/pseuds/mayuaka
Summary: sicheng dresses as a certain character for halloween, at yuta's expense.





	at your touch

“how do i look?” sicheng asks, adjusting the mask on his head.

“beautiful,” yuta says automatically, reaching out to touch his hair (he really liked the color on him), to put an arm around him, but sicheng steps back.

“if you touch me, i’ll disappear.” sicheng teases, almost-smiling. 

yuta pouts. “that’s not fair.”

“what’s not fair?” sicheng asks, like he actually doesn’t know, like he didn’t choose his costume just so he could do this—wait. 

yuta puts aside his realization for a moment to respond, “i make you watch a beautiful masterpiece of a movie and this is how you repay me?”

the corners of sicheng’s lips turn up enough to be classified as a smile, and yuta feels kind of proud of himself. “you made me watch that movie so i would cry,” the younger points out.

yuta tries reaching for him again, but sicheng backs away too fast. he makes a frustrated noise.

then he has an idea.

“wait here,” he says, ignoring sicheng’s noise of confusion and running off to find what he needs. he comes back a minute later, slightly out of breath, and holds out the item to the other, who surprisingly hasn’t moved from his spot in the practice room.

“here,” he mumbles, stepping closer but not touching. he carefully wraps the white cloth around sicheng’s wrist, then ties a knot to secure it. he grasps the other end, tying it to his own arm. 

he looks up, finally, at sicheng’s expression. it’s kind of almost unreadable, puzzling, until sicheng seems to understand, nodding. he smiles at yuta again, just slightly, and yuta wants so badly to just pull him close, to just hold his hand for a moment. there’s nothing physical stopping him from touching sicheng right now, but it feels like if he does, everything will shatter.

sicheng swings his arm back and forth a little, tugging yuta’s wrist with him. he’s still smiling. yuta smiles back and feels weak. he thinks about what the cloth means, and what sicheng’s reaction means, and his stomach flips over and over in anxiousness. he feels like he should say something, should make a joke about it, but instead he stays quiet, hyper aware of the cloth brushing against his hand, and tries to commit every part of this moment to memory.

they have to part eventually, even though yuta really really doesn’t want to, so sicheng unties the cloth for him because he refuses to do it himself. sicheng seems to place the utmost care into not letting his fingertips brush even a little of yuta’s skin, and it frustrates him to no end. the cloth falls, now only held up by sicheng’s wrist, and yuta feels lost.

they take lots and lots of pictures, but sicheng somehow never ends up with him, or maybe he’s avoiding him on purpose. yuta doesn’t like it. he dances half on autopilot, because somehow his mind wanders back to exactly  _ why  _ sicheng chose that costume. 

they’re in the same car on the way back to the dorms, though not seated anywhere near each other. if he leans forward enough, he can spot the cloth and the mask in sicheng’s hands.

when they get there, he automatically heads to sicheng’s room.

he moves to sit down with him, on the bed, and sicheng moves the tiniest bit so their knees don’t bump. 

“are you  _ still _ doing this?”

sicheng doesn’t say anything. he twists the cloth around in his hands, seems to consider something, then hands one end of it to yuta. he takes it, and they both tie themselves together again. 

it’s so quiet. it’s just sicheng’s steady, even breaths, and then there’s a shout from a different room, startling the both of them. 

“did you pick this on purpose?” 

“not just for you,” sicheng says, so softly yuta barely catches it.  _ not just for you _ means still for him, right? what does  _ that _ mean, then?

“do you not want me to—”

“it’s not that important.” there’s laughter in the other’s eyes, bright. “i just thought it would be clever.”

“you—” yuta starts, and then stops because he doesn’t know what he’s going to say. he always assumes the absolute worst in everything, has a hard time  _ not _ doing it, because it’s so much easier to be frustrated that way than to be hurt. especially for sicheng, where he pushes too far forward and pretends it doesn’t affect him when it does.

“stay still,” sicheng tells him. he does. sicheng picks up the mask, discarded on the table from earlier, seems to want to do something else but doesn’t, waits a few seconds, takes a deep breath. 

sicheng unties the cloth, leaning over him, careful, lifts the mask in his hands, slips the string over yuta’s head, adjusts it, and yuta’s thinking:  _ what is he doing? _ and then he remembers.

they don’t touch. sicheng’s exhales ghost over his face. the only thing between their lips is plastic.

yuta counts to three before he takes off the mask and surges forward before sicheng can move away, the younger making a startled sound against his mouth before pressing back.

“did you plan this?” he asks, after they’re both thoroughly out of breath.

“you know i have to disappear now, right?” sicheng teases instead of answering.

yuta thinks about it, about him fading into a million pieces between his fingers, and he doesn’t like it at all. he likes sicheng too much, way too much, and sicheng knows it so, so well.

“stop pretending,” he says between breaths. he pulls him closer.

“okay,” sicheng whispers, and nothing else, but yuta knows what he wants to say, has known since they could barely speak to each other in broken korean. he kisses him again, in acceptance.

it’s not perfect, but it’s what he wants, and it feels like nothing else has ever captured him like this as much as sicheng; he’s too reckless and too forward while sicheng is always cautious and not completely there. 

yuta likes to think he knows what sicheng means. especially with the other’s intentions tonight.

(it’s like a really roundabout way of saying ‘i love you.’)

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to [cosmic_nebby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_nebby/pseuds/cosmic_nebby) for reminding me about the mask kiss scene and thank you to dong sicheng for existing


End file.
